Night Owl Cards

That is my Mike Trout rookie card. Most days it sits under lock-and-key because I just know there are thieves lurking in the bushes so they can steal it from me. Even when I pull it out for blog occasions like this one, I don't like scanning it outside of its top-loader. I'd do it if I had to -- I don't care about it that much -- but all it will take is one trip to ebay to see how much it is selling for and I suddenly feel like hiring armed guards. My goal is to sell this card someday and I probably would have sold it already, but I've held on to it because I wasn't done with the 2011 Topps Update set yet. No, I haven't completed the 2011 Update set -- no plans to do that -- but there was one card from that set that I wanted above any other one and it took ages for me to get it. The Matt Kemp Toppstown card from that set lounged on my Nebulous 9 list longer than any other card that I've placed on there. But if you look over at the Nebulous 9 now,

Yesterday, my wife told me that there were binders of baseball cards at a thrift store in a plaza nearby. The only thing I knew about this thrift store in the past is it is filled with women's clothes and, like, nothing else. So there was no reason for me to go there. I couldn't believe that suddenly there were baseball cards. Per usual, I was suspicious. But that didn't stop me from heading out there almost instantly to see what was up. It turns out there were about a dozen-or-so one-inch ring binders, each containing sets from the early '90s. Stuff like 1991 Upper Deck and 1992 and 1993 Ultra. They weren't complete sets and they were 11 bucks a binder. Although I was momentarily interested in the binder of 1992 Pinnacle, I passed ... and headed down the street to blow some cash on Stadium Club! I sometimes feel like I need to apologize for buying modern cards, but for me this is the peak of the current-card season. Both Stadium Club and Allen & Gint

"A picture is worth a thousand words." I've always taken offense to that expression. Sure, it's fine if you're a photographer or a painter, but way to marginalize an entire profession. I make my living with words. I happen to think words are beautiful. A picture can't possibly tell an entire story. But words can. Anyway, I'm not here to downgrade photographs. In fact, I'm here to praise them. I've heard a little grousing about the font in this year's Stadium Club. Yes, the font ... that thing that people notice for a second on Stadium Club before the photo takes over everything. The font is incidental to Stadium Club. The only thing it's good for is differentiating between years of Stadium Club. If Stadium Club had an actual design -- borders and graphics, etc. -- then I could see it detracting from the wonderful Stadium Club photos. But it doesn't, and a little ol' font isn't going to prevent me from accumulating tho